Hedging: University Responses to the Overturning of Roe in Abortion-Ban States

Abstract

Colleges and universities in states with near-total abortion bans began navigating new terrain regarding public relations, student affairs, and community accountability after the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Many institutions found themselves in a quagmire of risk assessment that overshadowed the ongoing social justice and human rights issues presented by the lack of abortion access for their students, faculty, staff, and surrounding communities. We analyze the responses of six similarly positioned private institutions in abortion-ban or abortion-restrictive states. Drawing on reproductive justice scholarship, we utilize feminist critical discourse analysis to examine official statements by top university administrators and contextualize them within the institutions’ competing interests as determined through an investigation of news media and scholarship on higher education. We also look at writings created by student and employee activists aiming to influence institutional responses, and we examine the specific tactics and material resources deployed by these universities in the aftermath of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Ultimately, we argue that, as universities have become increasingly run like businesses over the last several decades, concerned primarily with their bottom line and risk aversion, institutions in states with severe restrictions or bans on abortion engage in a complex balancing act of several competing interests of which reproductive justice is only one if it is considered at all. Accordingly, we conclude that only when the effects of abortion bans on these institutions’ economic viability become clearer over the next few years are we likely to see universities use their considerable political power to pressure state legislatures on reproductive rights.